Patrick Baz is French-Lebanese, born in Beirut in 1963. He was twelve when war broke out in Lebanon in 1975. Living not far from the demarcation line separating the Christian and Muslim zones, Baz was stimulated by what was going on around him to take up photography at an early age. Lebanon became his training ground. Between 1980 and 1988, he worked as a freelance photojournalist. In 1989, Agence France-Presse (AFP) gave him the opportunity of covering the First Intifada in Gaza and the West Bank. He covered the First Gulf War in 1990, and later conflicts in Kurdistan, Somalia, and Sarajevo. Baz is currently AFP’s photo manager for the MENA region, but continued to cover conflict zones, serving as AFP bureau chief in Baghdad from 2002 to 2003. He has won three POYi awards, and in 2009 published Don’t Take My Picture, Iraqis Don’t Cry.